New Social Media App That Asks Teens To Say Nice Things To Each Other Tops iPhone Downloads — Beating WhatsApp, Facebook

Gas, a new-age teen app, has surpassed BeReal and Meta Platforms Inc.'s META Facebook and WhatsApp in popularity on the Apple Inc. AAPL App Store.

What Happened: Gas is currently the most popular iPhone app, despite being available only in some regions. At the time of writing, it was first on the list of social-networking apps download in the App Store.

Since its launch, users have downloaded the app more than 500,000 times, reported The Wall Street Journal, citing Data.AI.

Gas asks teens multiple-choice questions, primarily to complement each other. It lets users choose yearbook-style superlatives like "the most beautiful person you have ever met."

See Also: BeReal-ity Check! Social Media App Is Dubbed A Threat To Instagram, TikTok But There Is More To The Story Than 50M Downloads

Launched in August, Gas was developed by Nikita Bier (co-founder of tbh), Isaiah Turner, and David Schatz.

The app is acquiring 10,000 users and answering one million polls per hour, tweeted Bier.

Acquiring 10,000 users per hour.
Answering 1 million polls per hour.

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) October 18, 2022

In another tweet, Bier added that it's only available in five states.

We're rolling it out slowly. It's only available in 5 states: Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana—but more are coming soon.

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) October 11, 2022

"Gas is designed to be a safe place to interact with friends. Users can only interact through polls and with people they have accepted as friends. Unlike apps like Snapchat or Instagram, we do not support messaging between users," read an FAQ describing the app's safety policy on the website.

Why It's Important: Gas isn't the only social app taking on established giants like Facebook and Snap Inc.'s SNAP Snapchat. Fizz, a social app, recently closed a $4.5 million seed round. The app is used by many Stanford undergraduates. 

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